Last updated 28th March 2025. A prison is a place that sees the safety and well-being of people placed under someone’s charge. A prison has a responsibility to both keep the area safe for use and to protect any personal information they process. If they do not sufficiently carry out this responsibility, and this leads to a person suffering harm or an injury, the harmed individual might be entitled to sue the prison for compensation.
This guide will show you how to sue a prison; it will inform you of your rights, whether as a guard, a prisoner or a visitor, and your options if any of your rights were breached. It will talk about data breach claims and personal injury claims, while explaining the difference between the two. Potential compensation will also be discussed along with how to formally begin a claim.
If you want to speak to someone directly about your situation, you can reach out to one of our advisers now. They offer free legal advice and could even potentially value your claim.
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Choose A Section
- How To Sue A Prison For Personal Injury
- Examples Of Accidents In A Prison
- How To Sue A Prison For A Data Breach
- How To Sue A Prison For Assault
- How Much Could I Get If I Sue Either A Prisoner Or A Guard?
- What Criteria Is There For A No Win No Fee Agreement?
- Learn More About How To Sue A Prison
How To Sue A Prison For Personal Injury
Anyone physically using a prison has protections under health and safety legislation.
For a guard, or an employee contracted by the prison, workplace health and safety legislation such as Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA) are in effect. They make it an employer’s responsibility to take every measure they reasonably can to remove or reduce risks to an employee’s health and to provide a practically safe working environment.
This refers to risks present in both
- Their area of work
- The activities they are asking employees to perform
Suffering an injury, because a governor or director did not do enough to manage or address risks, can be grounds for a claim for compensation.
The expectation of a safe environment extends to prisoners and visitors of all kinds to a prison. Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, a prison is expected to look for any possible risks to a visitor’s safety and address them. A prisoner suffering an injury because of an unsafe prison might be eligible to sue the governor and make a claim for compensation. However, this would only be if the prison’s negligence caused the injury. There is some expectation of risk when visiting or working in a prison.
If you want more information about whether you could sue a prison over what happened to you, you should reach out to one of our advisers.
Examples Of Accidents In A Prison
Actions to look for and remove risks to an environment can help prevent accidents and injuries. For example:
- Risk Assessments: Performing risk assessments can help promote a more alert attitude towards risks in an environment and help avoid accidents. A risk assessment could identify a broken or loose step in a prison and help prevent a slipping injury.
- Performing Maintenance: Performing regular checks and maintenance over an area and equipment can help prevent accidents. A maintenance check could, for example, highlight and fix a broken fire door which would be a major hazard in the event of a fire
- Providing Health & Safety Facilities/First Aid Equipment: Adequate first aid or health facilities could make a massive difference in the event of an injury. Well trained staff or a well-stocked kit could help manage the condition of a person who has suffered a penetrative wound in a prison.
- Controlling Exposure To Substances: Limiting what harmful substances can be used within a prison can help avoid injuries entirely. Avoiding the use of substances with known health risks, for example, can reduce the chances of exposure.
These and similar actions to both think of risks present in a prison environment and work to manage or remove them, is what is expected of a prison.
Evidence
If you have suffered an injury, due to negligence of the prison, gather evidence of the circumstances that led to your injury to use in a personal injury claim.
This can be evidence in the form of:
- Witness contact details: Collect the contact details of witnesses who can provide statements for your claim.
- CCTV (Or similar recordings): Footage or photographs showing what led to your injury exist can act as evidence.
- Documents: Work documents that show the prison was not carrying out required health and safety procedures (e.g. they did not provide sufficient training in dealing with prisoners).
Evidence of your injury can also play an important part. If you have not already done so, seek out a medical assessment for any injury you suffered. This can help you know more about your condition and medical records from your examinations can be evidence. However, an independent medical assessment might be requested to provide a report for both sides to use in a claim.
For more information about evidence when looking to sue a prison, get in touch with one of our advisers now.
How To Sue A Prison For A Data Breach
Data processing is the broad term used to define the storing, management, use or examination of data.
Prisons have to process personal information in a lot of situations: when employing staff, when taking in or managing prisoners or even when letting visitors onto the premises.
There are strict rules and regulations mandating how they should manage or use the personal data they store. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, the person in charge of storing and managing data would be recognised as a data controller or data processor and they would be in charge of both securing the data and making sure its use is strictly in line with privacy and data protection laws.
A data breach is any incident that compromises the integrity and security of the personal data. A breach could occur if (for example):
- Someone hacks into the prison system to access the personal data
- Personal data is shared with someone unauthorised to use the data
- Personal data is accidentally lost or deleted.
The nature of information held in prisons means a data breach can have serious consequences. A breach could reveal:
- The crimes of a prisoner, endangering their lives
- Personal information about a prison guard, including their address
- Visitor information including names and relations
Securing the integrity of the information is important and if a prison data breach led to you suffering harm in any way, you could be eligible to sue the prison and make a claim for compensation. Contact our advisers now to see if you can begin your claim.
How To Sue A Prison For Assault
If you have been assaulted either as a prisoner, a visitor, or a guard, you could look to claim compensation from a prison for a criminal injury.
There are 3 different avenues in which you can make a criminal injury claim:
- Against the assaulter directly. This is only possible when the defendant has been identified and has the appropriate funds to pay compensation.
- Against an institute who could be held vicariously liable for the assault. Prison authorities have a duty to adequately protect your personal safety, whether you’re a prisoner, visitor, or a prison guard. For example, where prisoners have expressed that they feel at risk of assault, prison authorities should segregate such prisoners in a Vulnerable Person’s Unit (VPU) for their own protection. If a prison authority fails to do this, this could be considered as a breach of their duty to protect. If a prisoner is then assaulted as a result of this breach of duty, there could be sufficient merit to make a criminal injury claim against the prison institute.
- Through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). The CICA is a government scheme that compensates victims of a violent crime in Great Britain. Criminal injury claims are made through the CICA when the perpetrator can’t be identified (or they lack the funds to compensate the victim), and when an institution can’t be held vicariously liable.
Who Can Claim Through The CICA?
These are the eligibility requirements that must be met in order to claim through the CICA:
- You were injured from an assault or another violent crime (such as arson or sexual assault).
- The violent crime took place in England, Scotland, or Wales (or another relevant location, such as on a boat registered to one of these countries).
- The violent crime has been reported to the police.
- The claim is started within the time limit (which is usually 2 years, but this can be extended depending on exceptional circumstances).
Can I Make A CICA Claim If I Have A Criminal Record?
As a prisoner, you may not be able to claim through the CICA depending on your type of conviction.
There are 2 criminal conviction types:
- A spent conviction – where a certain amount of time has passed and the penalty has been carried out, meaning essentially the crime has been wiped from the person’s criminal record.
- An unspent conviction – where the person is still in a rehabilitation period.
If you’re a prisoner who has a spent conviction, you can claim through the CICA. But, the CICA may reduce or withhold the compensation if you’ve proven involvement in a crime, such as tax evasion or dealing illegal drugs.
If you’re a prisoner who has an unspent conviction, you are unable to claim through the CICA if the offence led to a:
- Prison sentence.
- Removal from His Majesty’s Service.
- Community order.
- Sentence that’s not eligible for rehabilitation.
- Youth rehabilitation order.
- Service detention sentence.
If you have an unspent conviction but are able to claim through the CICA (your offence hasn’t led to any of the above), your compensation may be reduced or denied.
For more information on prison compensation claims and how to sue a prison after being assaulted, please contact us today. We can check your claim eligibility and give you advice on what you can do next.
How Much Could I Get If I Sue Either A Prisoner Or A Guard?
If you suffered financial losses because of a physical or mental injury and were making a claim for compensation in a personal injury claim, you would seek out special damages. Any financial losses tied directly to the injury can be claimed back in special damages
In data breach claims, material damages serve a similar purpose. Though, unlike special damages, material damages for financial losses can be claimed as their own type of compensation. In personal injury claims, special damages can only be awarded if they are awarded alongside general damages.
General damages is the amount awarded for the sustained injury and any pain and suffering it brought. For an estimate, you can use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), a publication used by solicitors and judges when valuing claims.
Below is a table highlighting some award brackets listed in the JCG, but the amount in your claim will likely differ depending on your situation. This is because all claims are unique. Also, the top figure in this table isn’t from the JCG.
| Injury | Severity | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries and related expenses | Serious | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Brain damage | Very severe (a) | £344,150 to £493,000 |
| Moderate (c)(i) | £183,190 to £267,340 | |
| Back | Severe (a)(i) | £111,150 to £196,450 |
| Moderate (b)(i) | £33,880 to £47,320 | |
| Neck | Severe (a)(i) | In the region of £181,020 |
| Moderate (b)(i) | £30,500 to £46,970 | |
| Knee | Severe (a)(i) | £85,100 to £117,410 |
| Moderate (b)(i) | £18,110 to £31,960 |
In a data breach claim, you could seek non-material damage for any psychological harm suffered. The ruling in the Court of Appeal case, Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc 2015, means non-material damages can now be awarded as its own type of compensation without having suffered financial effects from the breach.
What Criteria Is There For A No Win No Fee Agreement?
A No Win No Fee solicitor can represent you in a personal injury or data breach claim. A No Win No Fee agreement is simply an arrangement where your solicitor would agree not to charge you an upfront solicitor fee nor ongoing solicitor fees as they handled your claim.
Payment would only be taken on the condition that your claim was successful and you were awarded compensation. In that case, the payment would be a success fee, a previously agreed-on small percentage of the compensation awarded.
If the claim was not successful, you would not have to pay your solicitor their fee at all.
Our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors could represent you in your claim. You can reach out to our advisers now if you want to discuss making a claim with us.
Speak To Us About How To Sue A Prison
Our advisers can offer you more information on how to sue a prison and answer any more questions you might have. They offer free initial consultations and can offer legal advice. You can reach them now via:
- The number at the top of the page
- Our contact page
- The live chat feature
Learn More About How To Sue A Prison
For any additional information you might need:
As a prisoner, you can make complaints to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
The government website offers statistics on safety in prisons
The government website also offers information on your privileges and rights as a prisoner
You can learn more about personal injury claims from our guides:
- Personal injury claims
- Sue for a broken cheekbone
- Broken hip compensation
- Broken rib compensation
- Sue for a concussion
- Break or fracture
- Personal injury claims process
- Suing a restaurant
- How to sue a takeaway
- Sue for an injury at a bus stop or bus station
- How to sue a nursing home for personal injury
Thank you for reading our guide on how to sue a prison. Please contact our advisers for any more information.
Article by CHA
Edited by VIC